List #54: Some Comfort When You're Sick, Part 2

When you're sick, the media you consume must walk a fine line ---
not too peppy (gets grating),
not too sad (can't run the risk of additional nose blowing),
not too serious (attention span is basically zero),
and not too overtly hilarious (laughing hurts).

I speak from recent experience. Your personal mileage may vary.

[See Part 1 here.]

6. Hyperbole and a Half [book and/or website] (Rec. #7) (List #35)
Potentially breaks every single rule I've laid out above. But worth it.

7. Paris to the Moon [book] (Rec. #39)
You can imagine that you're Adam Gopnik and The New Yorker is paying you to write about what it's like to be sick in Paris. Or just imagine you're in Paris.

8. The Royal Tenenbaums [movie] (QfFC #40)
Sometimes moving slowly and sullenly in ill-fitting clothing makes you cool as heck, not just inept and zoned out. Soundtrack probably has a lot to do with that, though.

9. The Undertaker's Gone Bananas [book] (Rec. #16)
Teens sleuthing through their own angst. Plus, someone hides a head in a TV set. This is the sort of thing you can appreciate right now.

10. Who Do You Think You Are? [TV, streaming on Hulu]
You can make snap judgments about whether you find each celebrity likable or not, which is very soothing.

List #54: Some Comfort When You're Sick, Part 1

When you're sick, the media you consume must walk a fine line --- 
not too peppy (gets grating), 
not too sad (can't run the risk of additional nose blowing), 
not too serious (attention span is basically zero), 
and not too overtly hilarious (laughing hurts).

I speak from recent experience. Your personal mileage may vary.

1. Black Books [TV, streaming on Hulu] (Rec. #68)
Bernard Black provides scads of modeling on ways to be grumpy and misanthropic.

2. Original cast recording of Chess [music]
Dramatic and gorgeous and ridiculous. If you're slightly out of it due to being medicated, all the better.

3. Cold Comfort Farm [book and/or movie] (Rec. #34), (Rec. #158)
Maybe if you are pathetic enough, Flora Poste will come and fix your life.

4. The Daughter of Time [book] (Rec. #228)
If you're bedridden, this will make you feel like you too could solve mysteries that are centuries old ....

5. Cherish [movie] (Rec. #29)
... Or like you can be housebound and catch your own stalker.

[Continue with Part 2 here.]

Streaming Suggestion of the Week #19: How to Steal a Million

Stream what: Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole in a heist comedy.

Stream why: It's pretty hard to beat watching the sublime Hepburn run around Paris while verbally sparring with O'Toole.

Stream where: Netflix, Amazon Prime


Read more: Rec. #205, List #28, List #41

Friday Flashback: Rec. #150: Smilla's Sense of Snow

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: In Smilla's Sense of Snow, the eponymous narrator finds herself drawn into the amateur investigation of a young boy's fatal fall from a roof. Smilla is half Greenlander, half Danish. She lives in Copenhagen, still somewhat torn by the two worlds (post-colonial history alert!). Author Peter Høeg tangles up his compelling main character in deceptions, conspiracies, and intrigues, while imbuing the story with the rich detail of an unusual setting.

Comparable to: It's a literary thriller in the vein of Arturo Perez-Reverte, except it's cold here and hot there.

Representative quote: "People hold their lives together by means of the clock. If you make a slight change, something interesting nearly always happens."

You might not like it if: Too quiet. Too contemplative. Too much snow.

How to get it: Borrow, buy, download. There's also the movie adaptation. Lots of snow in that, too.

Connections to other Wreckage: Part of List #4: 7 Mysteries from Authors Who Are Still Alive and List #6: A Few Seasonally Inappropriate Options for the Northern Hemisphere. Also First Sign of Murder #12.

[Originally posted 6/23/11.]

Rec. #386: Price Peterson's Photo Recaps

Typical Lifetime movie

An episode of Penny Dreadful

The Emmys this past weekend

What: Honestly, Price Peterson's photo recaps of television shows I will never watch (Penny Dreadful, American Horror Story, etc.) and events I can't sit through (the Emmys, the Oscars, etc.) might be the best way to consume pop culture these days.

Representative quote: "According to government statistics, roughly 27,000 superhero films are released every weekend."

Bonus representative quote: "Chores, we all gotta do 'em. Dishes, laundry, mowing the lawn, bottle-feeding baby raccoons, scrubbing the bidet, paying bills, carrying corpses out to a mystical tree stump where you incinerate them with your naked body."

How to get it: Price Peterson is a staff writer for TV.com, a website that has much more character than its name. You can find his posts here: http://www.tv.com/news/author/priceiswrong/

Connection to previous Wreckage: These recaps were part of List #21: If I Had the Sort of Job Where I Could Spend Time Doing Things on the Internet, Here Are Some of the Things I Would Spend Time Doing.

Quote from a Fictional Character #79

"My theory is that everyone is a potential murderer."

--- Bruno Anthony,

Strangers on a Train, 1951

(Rec. #166)

(List #30: Nine Hitchcock Films Starring Non-Blondes)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #21: The Reaper

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: In The Reaper, Peter Lovesey spins the traditional British cozy mystery novel on its head, letting a popular and charming (and murderous) parish priest run rampant in the English countryside. Even as the evidence builds against him, parishioners remain steadfast in their devotion to the Reverend Otis Joy. The result is pure, wicked fun.

Comparable to: Have you seen In Bruges? (Yes? Good! No? Oh, check out Rec. #135.) Well, the tone is kind of like that.

Representative quote: "After a wedding rehearsal in the church --- but before rigor mortis set in --- Joy returned to the rectory, his pastoral duties over for the day. He felt as shaky as anyone does with a dead bishop waiting for disposal, but he was in control. He trusted himself not to panic."

You might not like it if: The premise kind of ooks you out.

How to get it: Readily available and easy to spot --- just look for the distinctive green and white Soho Crime covers.



[Originally posted 1/20/11.]

Rec. #385: Pride

What: Brit cinema again does the based-on-a-true-story thing --- U.K. gay activists rally to support striking miners in the mid-'80s.

Take this rainbowy bedrock of social justice, add a crackerjack cast (McNulty as you've never seen him) and this-is-what-happened-to-them end credits, and you've basically got the Platonic ideal of a crowd-pleaser, in the Billy Elliot/Kinky Boots/Full Monty vein. 

Triumphant and a little sad and super fun.

Comparable to: As I said, Billy Elliot, Kinky Boots, Full Monty.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Pride was part of List #47: Some of the Best Movies I Saw in 2014 and List #50: A Personal Wreck Interlude.

Quote from a Fictional Character #78

"I didn't have 'low self-esteem,' I had 'high apathy.'"

--- Lizbet Montgomery,

A Tale of Two Sisters, Anna Maxted, 2006

Friday Flashback: Rec. #292: Gavin & Stacey

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: British television series Gavin & Stacey is far, far cleverer and funnier than it has any right to be. 

Consider the possible strikes against it: 

• the premise has eye-rolling potential (boy from Essex and girl from Wales try to make semi-long-distance relationship work); 
• the writers cast themselves in sidekick roles and often give themselves the best lines; 
• many of the subplots assume that you have an attitude of amused, tolerant condescension toward Wales.

But! The show has an amazing cast and it manages to thread some deadpan raunch through bits that could tip too far sweet. Plus, there's Nessa. Add Nessa to every show ever, please.

Representative quote: "I know the dress is white, right, but who can honestly say, hand on heart, that they're a virgin these days?"

Representative dialogue:
"This reminds me of a very similar situation I was in with my second husband, Clive. I was faced with a dilemma, whether to lie, or not to lie, and I chose to tell the truth."
"And what happened?"
"He died. Firing squad. Terrible way to go, Stace, and I wouldn't like to see it happen to you."

Representative Nessa quote: "Since when have a great rack and an open mind not been a man's type?"

How to get it: Stream it via Hulu or Amazon

Connections to previous Wreckage: Actors from Gavin & Stacey can also be seen in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Rec. #112) and The History Boys (Rec. #115).

Also: Wondering who that new late-night bloke James Corden is? This isn't a bad way to find out.

[Originally posted 5/23/13.]

Rec. #384: The Infatuations

What: A woman gets very involved in the lives of two regularly-observed strangers ... after one of them is killed.

Opening lines: "The last time I saw Miguel Desvern or Deverne was also the last time that his wife, Luisa, saw him, which seemed strange, perhaps unfair, given that she was his wife, while I, on the other hand, was a person he had never met, a woman with whom he had never exchanged so much as a single word."

Representative quotes: See Quote from a Fictional Character #15 and Quote from a Fictional Character #70.

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able. Like much of Javier Marías's work, it has also been translated from the original Spanish into 42 different languages.

Connection to previous Wreckage: The Infatuations showed up on List #35: A Few of the Best Books I Read in 2013.

Quote from a Fictional Character #77

"Oh, big issues. Liberty. Rights. Justice. Kings died, kingdoms fell. I don't regret the kingdoms --- what sense in borders and nations and patriotism? But I miss the kings."

--- Maude

Harold and Maude, 1971

(Rec. #45)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #239: The Deeper Meaning of Liff

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: The subtitle is: "A Dictionary of Things There Aren't Any Words for Yet." This pretty neatly sums up the concept, which is quite good fun.

Comparable to: The book is co-authored by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, both British comedy writers, so it's rather British-comedy-writer-esque, in an Adams and Lloyd kind of way.

Representative entries:

Abalemma: "The agonizing situation in which there is only one possible decision but you still can't make it."

Ahenny: "The way people stand when examining other people’s bookshelves."

Alcoy: "Wanting to be bullied into having another drink."

Alltami: "The ancient art of being able to balance the hot and cold shower taps."

Aubusson: "The hairstyle a girl adopts for a special occasion which suddenly gives you a sense of what she will look like in twenty years' time."


You might not like it if: Adams and Lloyd assign existing place names to their definitions, and you sort of wish they had invented completely new words. You don't know why, but you just think it might have been better that way, somehow.

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able

Connections to previous Wreckage: Douglas Adams is represented elsewhere on this blog by The Salmon of Doubt (Rec. #4), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Rec. #42), Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Rec. #162), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Rec. #198), and Life, the Universe and Everything (Rec. #230).

For a quick view of all of the above, see List #25: Happy Birthday, Douglas Adams

[Originally posted 5/23/12.]

Streaming Suggestion of the Week #18: Better Off Ted

Stream what: It's a snarky workplace comedy with a smart touch of the absurd.

Stream why:
It has storylines like

• The company decides to freeze Phil. 
• The company installs motion sensors that can't detect black people. 
• Lem and Phil reluctantly invite Ted to their Medieval Fight Club.

And it has quotable dialogue like: "The company loves its money. If they could, they'd go to strip clubs and throw naked women at money."

Stream where: Netflix, Amazon Prime

Stream whuh?: The main character's name is Ted. That's why the awful title. The show is so much better than the title, I promise.


Read more: Rec. #147

And: Quote from a Fictional Character #5

Quote from a Fictional Character #76

"She looks like an unlikely adventuress, and yet she's the only person I know who has scuba-dived in the Japanese naval wrecks in Truk Harbor, or once broke a hip jumping out of an airplane ...

"I always like Carolyn Dahlberg better as a concept than as a companion. She makes a person nervous."

--- Luke Planter,

A Few Corrections, Brad Leithauser, 2001

(Rec. #117)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #143: Me Without You

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Anna Friel and Michelle Williams give knock-down-drag-out powerhouse performances as charming, volatile, possessive Marina (Friel) and quiet, insecure, frustrated Holly (Williams). 

The film follows the childhood friends through the '70s and '80s, drugs and breakups, unforgivable actions and inescapable dependencies. It's a harsh, unflinching look at the layers of support and mild sabotage that are inherent in almost any close relationship.

Comparable to: The friendship in Heavenly Creatures is only slightly more toxic. (OK, that's an exaggeration. Anna Friel and Michelle Williams don't murder anyone.)

Representative quote: "Don't ever be yourself; you've got to have a gimmick. How about 'intense and difficult'? You could manage that."

You might not like it if: You are looking for Beaches. Or maybe you're unprepared to hear Michelle Williams with a British accent. Or Anna Friel without her Pushing Daisies U.S. accent. Or maybe you're sick of seeing Kyle MacLachlan pop up in unexpected places.

How to get it: Tricky to buy, but easy enough to rent or borrow.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Me Without You is part of List #18: Ten Movies That Pass the Bechdel/Wallace Test. Also see Quote from a Fictional Character #50. 

When the show Pushing Daisies (Rec. #233) first came out, I was already prepared to like it because I was a big fan of Anna Friel, both from this and from the miniseries adaptation of the Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend (Rec. #88). 

And Oliver Milburn, who plays Marina's brother, also shows up in Green Wing (Rec. #110).

[Originally posted 6/13/11.]

Rec. #383: Traitor's Purse

What: He wakes up in a hospital not knowing who he is, and the first thing he hears is two people discussing his case: "They'll hang him, I suppose?"

So he runs.

Opening lines: "The muttering was indistinct. It crept down the dark ward, forcing itself upon the man who lay in the patch of light at the far end of the vast room."

Representative quote: "The one clear conclusion to be drawn from present developments, he decided, was that he and the girl were up to something --- or at least she certainly was."

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able. Also available as an audiobook, but I can't vouch for that.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Other books by Margery Allingham include Black Plumes (Rec. #156), The Estate of the Beckoning Lady (FSoM #3), The Fashion in Shrouds (QfFC #17), and Sweet Danger (Rec. #133).

Rec. #382: Waitress

What: The movie Waitress is the final film from the late, great actress/writer/director Adrienne Shelly. (She was murdered before its release.) The title character is Jenna, who is saving up money to leave her abusive husband when she discovers that she's pregnant.

Things only sort of look up from there for Jenna, but there are a lot of pies and some very excellent writing.

Also, Nathan Fillion. People really seem to like Nathan Fillion, so I should mention that.

Comparable to: As an actress, Shelly was best known for her roles in Hal Hartley films, and Waitress shares the sort of deadpan humor found in Trust and The Unbelievable Truth.

Representative quote: "Hiya there, Earl! We all just agreed that your hair is super attractive! Hooray for you!"

How to get it: Buy or borrow. It's also recently been adapted into a stage musical, set to open on Broadway next spring.

Connection to previous Wreckage: The movie Trust was Rec. #165

Friday Flashback: Rec. #260: The Uncommon Reader

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Alan Bennett devises a clever premise --- the Queen of England discovers the joys of reading via a library bookmobile parked at the palace kitchens --- and he executes the premise delightfully.

Comparable to: Bennett's first novella, The Clothes They Stood Up In, is a similarly stripped-down modern fable.

Opening lines: "At Windsor it was the evening of the state banquet and as the president of France took his place beside Her Majesty, the royal family formed up behind and the procession slowly moved off and through into Waterloo Chamber."

Representative quote: "Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed potato --- one finishes what's on one's plate."

You might not like it if: Given how quick a read this novella is, you'll be done with it before you could decide you didn't like it (which is unlikely, anyway).

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able

Connections to previous Wreckage: Find more Alan Bennett in The History Boys (Rec. #115) and The Clothes They Stood Up In (Rec. #169).

See also List #52: Happy Birthday, Alan Bennett

[Originally posted 8/30/12]

Streaming Suggestion of the Week #17: Slings and Arrows

Stream what: Behind-the-scenes drama at a theater festival. It's Canadian.

Stream why: The creators knew ahead of time that the show would run for three seasons, so the overall arc of the series flows and grows and deepens -- basically the things you always hope a series arc will do. Plus excellent acting, writing, etc.

Stream where: Hulu, or pay to stream on Amazon


Read more about season #1: Rec. #127

Read more about season #2: Rec. #191

Read more about season #3: Rec. #287